Moscow will not respond to first and second-tier sanctions in line with the revenge principle, a presidential aide for economic issues Andrey Belousov said

KHABAROVSK, September 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia has worked out a plan of actions for all levels of Western sanctions, but it does not mean Moscow will necessarily use it, Andrey Belousov, a presidential aide for economic issues, told the Vesti v Subbotu program on the Rossiya-1 TV channel on Saturday.

“Since the first batch of sanctions [was imposed on Russia], we have certainly developed a plan of actions I can’t make public. For all levels of sanctions, from the smallest ones to Iranian-style ones we have a certain series of activities that can take effect under certain conditions,” Belousov said.

“But it does not mean that all this will be imposed,” he said.

Belousov added that Moscow will not respond to first and second-tier sanctions in line with the revenge principle.

“We should act to avoid harming the consumer and to help the manufacturer. The government will not proceed from replacing whiskey with moonshine and Coca Cola with the Buratino beverage,” he said.

The latest batch of EU and US sanctions on Russia took effect Friday. It came despite the fact that the parties to the intra-Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire during OSCE-mediated talks on September 5, and that the truce took effect the same day.

Russia came under Western sanctions, including visa bans, asset freezes, and sectoral restrictions for Russia's incorporation of Crimea after a coup in Ukraine in February and for what the West claimed was Moscow’s alleged involvement in mass protests and hostilities in Ukraine’s southeast, which Russia has repeatedly denied.

In response, Moscow imposed on August 6 a one-year ban on imports of beef, pork, poultry, fish, cheeses, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from Australia, Canada, the EU, the United States and Norway.